`` Marbles `` : An Artist 's Struggle With The Effect Of Bipolar Disorder On Her Abilities

Walking down the street, everyone seems to go about their business, not taking the time to look at others around them and see the potential suffering that could be occurring. While reading Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison, it became clear how frightful it is to travel through life with Bipolar disorder. Kay began as a child growing up within a household of mental illness without knowledge until she was much older. Yet at the age of fifteen she did know that her sister had an “enormous artistic imagination and soul” (Jamison 15). This included having raging anger at different times co-occurring with her father's increased negative behavior of depression, rage and drinking after he retired and they moved. In California, Kay had to recreate

Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half (2013) is a compilation of short personal occurrences that Brosh experienced in her life. This book takes on a unique format in that rather than just text, it is composed of short sentences and paragraphs combined with little drawings of the scenes described. Her frank language and juvenile drawing style allows all different types of readers access to the genuine heart that is portrayed during each snippet of time. While an enjoyable read solely for the depictions and sometimes-comic storytelling, the book also addresses very serious subjects such as depression and identity. Having been published in 2013, this book appeals to contemporary readers and it is necessary to analyze it in its historical context in order to understand its true significance. For many people, it is difficult to address serious concerns regarding mental health and this book makes it available in a form that is both casual and real. As opposed to medical journals or psychologists who will provide a scientific explanation, this publication provides people with a relatable experience that promotes comprehension rather than correct terminology. Ultimately, Hyperbole and a Half tells the story of a woman trying to cope with the difficulties and conundrums of everyday life, but its real significance cannot be understood without insight into the twenty-first century person struggling to understand and confront their own or another’s mental illness.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” has a narrator who is clinically insane at the end of our story, but who wouldn’t be? In this tale of madness, we see a young woman go insane from not only the lack of creative stimulus in a creative mind, but also from the oppression of the

Given her accreditation and awards for her work in her community, as well as her literature, it is easy to see why she continues to make an impact in her field. Throughout her college career, and thereafter, she has made monumental influences in the lives of others through her research. Moreover, her knowledge of those who have disorders helps people understand that she truly does know what they are going through. Jamison was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when she was 28 years old. Not only does this allow her to empathize with others by allowing her to walk in the same shoes as them, she is still able to perform her duties as a psychologist. Not only does she understand others with bipolar disorder, she understands how she affects others with her disorder. Some may think that by “outing” herself as having a mood disorder, she may have hindered her career. In fact, it

How would you react if you found your wife in the shower with another man? Any sane person would furious, but would you lose control and beat the other man senseless? Bradley Cooper’s portrayal of bipolar disorder in The Silver Linings Playbook how untreated the disorder can take control of a person’s life giving them manic episodes and major depressive episodes. This film aims to accurately display the struggles any person with bipolar disorder will deal with in their daily life while trying to manage the extensive mood swings they experience. The intended purpose of this paper is to analyze not only in what ways the director and cast accurately display the everyday life of an individual with bipolar disorder, but also the quality of the film. Throughout the movie themes of divorce, medications, the need for social support when dealing with mental disorders and a person’s unwillingness to accept help, will all be brought up in order to help an individual manage their disorder.

In her book, An Unquiet Mind, Kay Jamison instills an understanding of bipolar disorder from two opposing perspectives. Initially, Jameson tells a tale of herself as a long-term victim of bipolar. It is from her description that a reader is highlighted about the various avenues through which the condition attacks. Besides exploring the disorder as the victim, the book as well depicts Jamison as the healed. That is, she gives an account of her life as an individual who survived the grips of bipolar disorder and became a healer (psychotherapist and a lecturer) instead. Reflecting on Jamison’s work An Unquiet Mind automatically triggers the desire of the reader to unearth more about the author, her context, and diagnosis of the bipolar disorder.

In her first journal entry Kaysen tells how the decision for her to go to McLean Hospital was based on a twenty minute conversation with a psychiatrist. Kaysen had been picking at her acne and been acting out in ways which would not be considered unusual for teens today, but at the time it was a sufficient excuse for commitment to an institution. In an interview, Kaysen further develops the idea that her illness was influenced by outside factors saying, “ [Her] retrospective account of her confinement at McLean Hospital makes a cultural intervention that challenges the notion that mental illness is rooted solely in the individual.” (Kaysan, 18). Being surrounded by girls with serious illnesses forced Kaysen to assume the role of a girl with a real mental illness. Society forced her to find something wrong with herself in an attempt to fit in. Kaysen questions what mental illness truly is. She asks,“Was everybody seeing this stuff and acting as though they weren't? Was insanity just a matter of dropping the act?” (Kaysen 41). Because Kaysen was labeled as being mentally ill although she was not, it became hard for her to tell what truly pronounced someone as mentally ill. Was everyone slightly crazy or were just some better at hiding it then others? Living in such an uptight society, people had no choice but to put on an act of perfection. When someone began to “drop the

story in a memoir titled Madness: A Bipolar Life, in an attempt to shed some light and insight on the

Kay Redfield Jamison is a Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, however she did not achieve this level of success easily. In Jamison’s novel, An Unquiet Mind, she writes about her life and her battle with manic-depressive illness, revealing how someone’s life is impacted by a psychological disorder. Her novel revolves around her ailment and the situations she encounters along the way of her journey, such as attempting to commit suicide, suffering from deep depressions, and experiencing hallucinations of flying. Jamison struggled a great deal in college since she was unable to control her disability along with her schoolwork. In time, she started to take lithium to help control her disorder and her flying

Daphne Scholinski documents her experiences through multiple psychiatric institutions in her gripping and light-hearted memoir titled, “The Last Time I Wore A Dress”. Published in 1997, her memoir establishes a strong connection with readers, thereby allowing them to be present within her plot; watching her story unfold from above. By analyzing the plot, characters, themes, and setting of “The Last Time I Wore A Dress”, I seek to draw a connection between Scholinski’s memoir and the mental model of madness. In doing so, this paper aims to shed light upon the hardships faced by Scholinski and her survival through it all.

This source gives the readers an in-depth overview of Bipolar Disorder and the causes of having the mental health issue. There’s a great distinction between the ups and downs people experience and bipolar disorder. Due to the ups and downs teens and children experience, bipolar disorder is hard to diagnose during those early years. The National Center of Biotechnology Information’s research program is run by Senior Investigators, Tenure Track Investigators, Staff Scientists, and Postdoctoral Fellows which makes the source credible. The source contained

Deciphering a story centered around a psychological disorder challenges interpreters to have a significant understanding of that disorder as well. Bipolar disorder is a “brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in

This paper is a fictional first person account of what my life would be like if I had been diagnosed with bipolar II disorder during my freshman year of college. This account will explore the interpersonal, environmental, and developmental effects this mental illness would have had on me as well as how my life course would have changed. Scholarly articles, the DSM 5, and my education in both the psychology and social work field influenced the depiction of bipolar II disorder presented. This paper will also focus on types of treatment and therapeutic relationships that I would find helpful if I was diagnosed with this mental illness.

In Amy Bloom’s short story, “Silver Waters”, the narrator, Violet, reveals the struggles of mental illnesses that Rose, her sister, suffers with. Violet discusses the many psychiatric wards Rose ends up in and the therapists that the family hates. More times than not, the family ends up protecting Rose from many of the dangers that the world possesses, like confusing insurance policies. Throughout the novel, the psychiatrists and therapists do not seem to care about Rose or the fact that she is more than just her mental illness; she has a complex personality. In “Silver Water”, Bloom uses the characterization of psychiatrists and therapists who interact with Rose to demonstrate that people with mental illnesses are not taken seriously; the symbolism of silver water proves that Rose has a complex personality with a beautiful voice, which proves that she deserves to be taken seriously.

In the movie Silver Linings Playbook, we follow Pat Solitano Jr., a man recently released from a mental institution (Cohen et al., 2012). He is a Caucasian male, likely in his early to mid-thirties and of Italian descent. He was a high school history teacher, living with his wife, Nikki, an English teacher. Upon finding his wife in the shower with another man, he nearly beats the man to death leading him to be sent to a psychiatric facility for eight months with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. In this essay I will support the diagnosis of a Bipolar I disorder. A diagnosis of Bipolar I disorder, has specific criteria in the DSM-V that have to be met. I will be listing the criteria and through examples of Pat’s actions, thoughts and behaviours, he meets the criteria.